January 6, 2004
PRESIDENT SARUMAN:
Jimmy Carter: 'Compassion for Mordor' (Dennis Prager, January 6, 2004, Townhall)
[ This story is fictional, but not false.]In a just-published interview with the Norwegian Society for Universal Neutrality (NSUN), former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said that the blockbuster trilogy "Lord of the Rings" is sending dangerous messages to the world's young people.
"For three hours in this latest installment of 'Lord of the Rings,' young people the world over watch my work in the United States and your work here in Europe -- to get nations to disarm, not to make moral judgments about any nation other than America or Israel -- undone.
"We who love peace," the Nobel Peace Prize laureate continued, "have to initiate a campaign to jolt people back to our view of the world. Let's be clear about the dangers. What if young people start identifying George W. Bush with Aragorn or Gandalf, and Saddam Hussein or Osama bin Laden with Saruman? Even worse, impressionable moviegoers might identify the American war against Iraq and so-called 'Islamic terror' with the war against the Orcs and Mordor.
"Who knows what might happen if enough young people start thinking that war is an option, or that some people or countries can be labeled 'evil,' or that there is something noble about a soldier who kills for a 'just' cause?"
Western Civilization might endure?
MORE:
Lord of the Rings vs. The Matrix: The two trilogies reveal very different messages about the possibilities for a multicultural society. (Andrea Lewis, 1/05/04, Pacific News Service)
Like most, I was entertained and awed by the artistry and technical achievements of "The Return of the King," but by the end of the film's 3.5 hours I thought the final chapter should have been dubbed "The Return of the Patriarchy."The "Rings" films are like promotional ads for those tired old race and gender paradigms that were all the rage back in author J.R.R. Tolkien's day. Almost all of the heroes of the series are manly men who are whiter than white. They are frequently framed in halos of blinding bright light and exude a heavenly aura of all that is Eurocentric and good. Who but these courageous Anglo-Saxon souls can save Middle Earth from the dark and evil forces of the world?
On the good side, even the mighty wizard Gandalf the Grey (Ian McKellen) is sanitized and transformed from the weed-smoking, rather dingy figure we first meet in the "The Fellowship of the Ring," into Gandalf the White, who, by the time of "Return of the King," has become a powerful military leader complete with pure white hair and an Eisenhower attitude.
Say what you will about the convoluted storyline of the "Matrix" trilogy. At least those films give women and people of color some characters they can relate to.
You really can't parody anything anymore can you? By the time you write the parody someone will be making the same points seriously. Posted by Orrin Judd at January 6, 2004 7:35 AM
Amen.
Posted by: Mark Byron at January 6, 2004 7:40 AMIn essence, Jimmy's fear is that the movie may make children believe that evil exists.
Posted by: MG at January 6, 2004 8:29 AMThese comments by Carter are so absurd that they seem to be a parody. Did he really say this stuff?
Posted by: AWW at January 6, 2004 8:47 AMIt is parody, but the only way you can tell is that, at the end of the piece, the author fesses up. As he says, the story is fictional, but not false.
Posted by: David Cohen at January 6, 2004 8:48 AMWe have to get over our irrational fear of the Nazgul.
Posted by: jim hamlen at January 6, 2004 9:48 AMDavid Brin points out that history is told by the victors:
Now ponder something that comes through even the party-line demonization of a crushed enemy. This clearcut and undeniable fact. Sauron's army was the one that included every species and race on Middle Earth, including all the despised colors of humanity, and all the lower classes.
Hm. Did they all leave their homes and march to war thinking "Oh, goody, let's go serve an evil dark lord"?
Or might they instead have thought they were the 'good guys', with a justifiable grievance worth fighting for, rebelling against an ancient, rigid, pyramid-shaped, feudal hierarchy topped by invader-alien elves and their Numenorean colonialist human lackeys?
Or perhaps it's all about the pipe-weed.
Or might they instead have thought they were the 'good guys', with a justifiable grievance worth fighting for, rebelling against an ancient, rigid, pyramid-shaped, feudal hierarchy topped by invader-alien elves and their Numenorean colonialist human lackeys?
Well, the bulk of Sauron's army were orcs -- and the orcs originally were elves. Sauron systematically tortured & twisted them out of recognition to create a obediant, quick-breeding race.
Posted by: Twn at January 6, 2004 10:29 AMTwn:
Oh, sure, that's what the oligarchs tell you, but in actuality the orcs were just embracing their post-elvish future.
Posted by: Mike Earl at January 6, 2004 10:37 AM"invader alien elves"?
The elves were there first. How could they be the invaders?
Posted by: Bartman at January 6, 2004 11:01 AM"The elves were there first. How could they be the invaders?"
In the same way British school children are now taught that the Romans,Saxons,Jutes,Angles and Normans were really just culturally enriching immigrants.
Posted by: M. at January 6, 2004 12:39 PMTell that to the welsh,OJ.
Posted by: M at January 6, 2004 1:33 PMThey did well enough out of the deal.
Posted by: oj at January 6, 2004 1:54 PMThey,and the Scots,were shoved to the least desirable corners of that island,their culture nearly extingueshed,their population nearly wiped out.
Did well?Only if by that you mean they weren't exterminated,I guess they did do all right.Kinda like the indians did all right here.At least we stuck them on barren reservations rather than using them as expendable cheap labor in coal mines.
Posted by: M. at January 6, 2004 2:17 PMBoth were great peoples long after the last invasions and the whole island was better for having our blood mix with theirs.
Posted by: oj at January 6, 2004 2:26 PMI am much hartened by the sucess of ROTK. I think the message is spot on. Also, The Last Samuri is excellent in emphasizing the nobility of honor and setrvice. Both movies are counter-cultural in the best sense of the word.
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at January 6, 2004 2:37 PMGandalf was an Eisenhower figure?
I suppose the part where he goes off to play golf is in the extended edition.
Posted by: M Ali Choudhury at January 6, 2004 2:50 PMDon't Hobbits, Elves and Dwarves count as "ethnic"? Did Ms. Lewis miss the courage of Arwen as she rescued Frodo from the Black Riders, or Eowyn as she took up sword against the Nazgul king and slew him? Does not Galadriel provide a commanding enough female role model?
You gotta believe that Ms. Lewis is loath to part with her "precious" sense of outrage.
Posted by: Robert D at January 6, 2004 3:52 PMRobert Shwartz,
both are in fact deeply anti-modern.
Tolkien was an agrarian "Little Englander" and those last samurai were fighting to retain a fuedal system.
Robert D.,
Jonah Goldberg had a comment on peopel like Ms. Lewis along the lines of "we see these characters and think,"cool,orcs!" you see them and think "black people!"",the whole LOTR thing has become a Rorshac(?) test,criticisms of the movies tend to reveal far more about the critic than the movies or Tolkien.
I remember a complaint by a woman circa 1977 about how sexist Star Wars was. You see, the Death Star is a big, round, egg-like thing, and the male pilots who destroy it fly small, maneuverable, sperm-like fighters, and blah blah blah....
Posted by: PapayaSF at January 6, 2004 5:32 PMAnd the Dark Father is the hero.
Posted by: oj at January 6, 2004 5:38 PMMy memeories if the original Star Wars is the abrasive ingratitude Princess Leia.
Posted by: M. at January 6, 2004 5:48 PMIf Gandalf is an Eisenhower figure, where is Arnold Palmer?
Posted by: jim hamlen at January 7, 2004 3:50 PM